I wouldn't be at all surprised if by now you've noticed that self-hypnosis is a key part of my overall approach to golf mind improvement. In fact, many of the golf psychology techniques that I talk about in my articles start off with the words "If you're familiar with a quick technique for taking yourself into self-hypnosis, then use it now."
So today, I'm going to describe a simple technique for taking yourself into a safe, light and relaxing trance. Using it will help you in getting the most out of the golf psychology ideas included in my other articles, newsletters and posts. You can also use this technique to calm and relax yourself at times of stress and anxiety, like taking an exam, meeting the boss, first-tee nerves or standing over an important shot on the golf course.
As you'll soon realise, this "Finger Breathing" technique does need a bit of imagination, but you must already be pretty imaginative if you're looking to use golf psychology to improve your golf!
Finger Breathing
Step 1: Start by finding a peaceful location, it can be in the middle of a crowd or on the golf course, just as long as you can quietly ignore what's going on around you. It doesn't matter if you're standing up or sitting down and you can have you're eyes open or closed. What's important is to be as comfortable as you can be wherever you are.
Step 2: Quietly take a few slow deep breaths while noticing how the air you're breathing in is cooling your body and calming your mind and the air you're breathing out is releasing all the tension from your body.
Step 3: Now, this is the bit where you need to use that imagination of yours. As you're inhaling, start imagining that you're breathing the air in through your fingers and noticing how the air seems to cool your fingers.
Step 4: With each subsequent breath in, imagine that cooling feeling slowly spreading up through your hands to your wrists, forearms, upper arms, shoulders, neck and on up to the top of your head; relaxing all the muscles as it goes. And once it gets to the top of your head, let it continue down over your face and into your upper body as you continue breathing in.
Step 5: Once the cooling sensation and relaxation spreads through to your upper body, start noticing how the flow continues on each out-breath down through your lower body and on through your thighs, knees, lower legs and ankles into your feet with each subsequent breath. Learn how each out-breath cools and relaxes the muscles until it finally seems to flow out of your toes leaving a slight tingling sensation there.
Step 6: Now imagine that the cooling and relaxing air flowing out of your toes as you breathe out seems to flow back in through your fingers as you breathe in again. Notice how your breathing just seems to be a steady rotating cycle with the air simply flowing in through your fingers, continuing through your body, exiting through your toes and then back in through your fingers again.
Step 7: Just continue with this cycle of breathing until you're feeling calm and relaxed and ready to tackle whatever golf psychology technique or challenging situation you're undertaking now.
Wow, I'm feeling so relaxed just writing about that. I expect you are too, whether you're reading it or simply running through it in your mind. It's much simpler to remember than it is to read or write down.
Author Resource:-
Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf" and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.
Visit his website www.golf-hypnotist.com for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.`
Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at www.golf-hypnotist.com and get your free 25-minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 programme.
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